Videoconferencing allows participants to share audio and video during a videoconference session. Existing videoconferencing systems can be grouped into two primary categories. A first category includes dedicated systems designed for enterprise conference rooms or personal offices, while a second category includes PC-based systems designed for personal use.
To conduct a videoconference session, the participants must have multimedia endpoints, which are typically associated with computers and are connected to a wideband network. Operating such multimedia endpoints and establishing the videoconferencing session requires that the participants have a certain amount of knowledge on how to set up the endpoints, connect the endpoints, etc. Because of limitations inherent in the design of either type of system, both types have connectivity, ease-of-use, and end-user feature set issues that have prevented the widespread adoption of such systems for use in the home environment. Consequently, videoconferencing sessions are popular in business environments where participants typically have more expertise, but videoconferencing sessions have not been popular between private households.
Advances in digital broadcasting enable television providers to offer interactive services, such as video-on-demand, to subscribers. Conventional interactive television systems, however, are limited to unidirectional video communication and/or audio telephony, and do not support video telephony. For example, some television systems enable television subscribers to access and view World Wide Web pages on their televisions in addition to receiving television channels. Although access to the web is possible, other “computer-like” functions are not currently available to television subscribers.
Thus, what is needed in the art is a videoconferencing system for home use that can integrate with typical existing home video equipment (such as televisions, cable or satellite set-top boxes, etc.) and provide natural transitions between content viewing and video calls, connectivity to existing videoconferencing systems for home office applications, high-quality audio and video experience, and expansion capabilities for feature enhancements. It is desirable for the system to be easy to install and use so as to appeal to a wide audience and provides a natural interactive experience in video calls.